Curriculum Integration

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Recent iterations of the Perkins legislation represent a major development in CTE—notably, an increased emphasis on academic achievement as well as occupational skills. Notably, Perkins IV requires the integration of rigorous and challenging academic and career and technical education in POS/career pathways.

The NRCCTE’s curriculum integration models embody a contextualized approach to integration, the genesis and focus of which is the CTE content. Contextualized teaching and learning does not require the sacrifice of CTE content or the addition of artificially imposed academic content. Rather, the academic concepts resident in authentic applications of CTE support the understanding of both.

Over its history, the NRCCTE has undertaken three scientifically based studies of curriculum integration models in an effort to determine if the integration of CTE courses is feasible and leads to improved student achievement in the core academic areas of math, literacy, and science.

We invite you to explore the NRCCTE’s integration studies and learn how the evidence-based professional development models that grew from those studies help create enduring and sustainable changes in teaching practice that lead to marked improvements in students’ academic and technical achievement.